


Pretty in pink

by MorganeUK



Series: The Doctor & the Librarian [5]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Canon Divergence - A Study in Pink, Doctor John Watson, John is pretty in pink, Librarian Sherlock, M/M, Pining John, Pining Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes Becoming a Detective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-03 23:35:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11542758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorganeUK/pseuds/MorganeUK
Summary: After chatting 2 times on Oxford Library help line, and exchanging phone numbers, librarian Sherlock and Doctor John finaly meet... around a corpse.





	Pretty in pink

**Author's Note:**

> The series is now finished!
> 
> Each story can be read independently I think,,, but it's better to read them in order :-)
> 
> Thank you to notjustmom for the beta-ification, you're the best as always :)

Sherlock, out of the doctor's sight, absorbs everything he could during John Watson's short exchange with Lestrade. He can see the confirmation of what he previously found when he researched the doctor. _The stance of a military man, the curious yet distressed and compassion look of a doctor when his gaze stops on the body of the woman. One of his legs seems stiff when walking... but he rests comfortably on both when immobile. Psychosomatic limp probably. I hope all those steps weren't too much? Incredible... such beautiful eyes. Pictures do not do them justice... Dark mysterious blue, like the sea at night, with a sparkle of gold... Wait... if I can catalog his eyes that means. Oh God. He's looking at me!_

"Sherlock? Are you coming back to us now?" Lestrade playfully asks the young man. He turns back to John, "Don't worry, he does that sometimes."

John walks till he reaches Sherlock and stops just out of reach, far too close for a first acquaintance. Unable to control himself, he was still staring at the beautiful intelligent man in front of him.  Sherlock, still struck by the arrival of the doctor, was at last able to acknowledge him and simply murmurs a soft "John..."

At the deep voice that was saying his name so, so, seductively, John pulse begins to race and a warm heat spreads all over his body. _Ok, that was the reaction I was hoping for._   He finally utters a hoarse "Sherlock. Yes, I'm John... Hi." _Oh God, he's going to think I'm an idiot... And he's far too striking for an ordinary man like me._

Lestrade, standing near the corpse, was having the time of his life and resisted with difficulty the idea of taking photos with his camera under the guise of taking crime scene photos. As the men were still staring at each other, for what it seemed like hours, but was maybe three minutes, the DI decides to put his foot down. He has a murderer to catch!  "Ahem... AHEM!..." Both men ultimately look at him with quizzical eyes. "The corpse? Whenever you are available Sherlock." He pauses briefly and looks towards the door. "But quickly, I don't think I can keep Anderson at bay for much longer."

Snapping out of his trance, Sherlock kneels near the body and pulls on gloves. The woman was face down, one of her arms extends where she scratched the word 'Rache' on the wooden floor... _With her nails, they are all broken and chipped. Left-handed._ Her umbrella was neatly folded and dry but under the collar of her coat is wet. Using a small magnifier, he checks her jewelry. Everything was spotless, her bracelet, her earrings, her gold chain. Everything except her wedding ring! _Married for more than 10 years, but unhappily._ He removes the ring with great care and, as he expected, the interior of the ring was spotless. _Serial adulterer._ He smiles, the usual satisfaction that followed a deduction heightened by the possibility of impressing John.

Lestrade, knowing that look, inquires, "Got anything?"

"Not much." Standing up, Sherlock removes the gloves and gets out his phone. Before he can say anything, he was interrupted by Anderson who was standing in the doorway.

"She’s German. ‘Rache’: it’s German for ‘revenge’. She could be trying to tell us something ..." 

The amateur detective walks rapidly towards the door and closes it in Anderson's face. "Yes, thank you for your input." He continues to work on his phone without missing a beat.

"So she's German?" Lestrade says tentatively.

"Of course she’s not. She’s from out of town, though. Intended to stay in London for one night ..." The website he was looking at confirms what he had deduced, "before returning home to Cardiff."  Putting his phone in his pocket, he looks at John and Greg with a smile. "So far, so obvious."

John, astonished with what was happening in front of him, was unable to keep silent "Sorry... obvious?"

"What about the message, though?" The DI asks, still not understanding. But he was ignored by Sherlock who was looking at John with great attention. "Doctor Watson, what do you think?"

"Of the message?"

"Of the body. You’re a medical man."

 _Oh yes, that's right... I'm a doctor..._ John thought.

At those words, Lestrade protests heatedly "Wait, no, we have a whole team right outside!"

"They won’t work with me."

"I’m breaking every rule letting _you_ in here!" The DI was nearly pulling his hair out of frustration!

"Yes ... because you need me."

Looking at Sherlock with a defeated look... he lowers his eyes. "Yes, I do. God help me."

"Doctor Watson, if you please."

John, not knowing what to do, looks at the DI with a questioning gaze.

"Oh, do as he says. Help yourself." Lestrade go to the door and yells. "Anderson, keep everyone out for a couple of minutes!"

Kneeling close to the woman, John looks at Sherlock and softly asks, "What am I doing here?" _You are supposed to be a bloody librarian!_

In the same tone, the tall man murmurs, "Helping me make a point."

 _This is crazy_! Rolling his eyes, John protests,  "It was supposed to be a date! In a restaurant or something!"

Looking at his 'date' with sparkling eyes, Sherlock says, _"_ Yeah, well, this is more fun as a first date, isn't it?"

"Fun? There’s a woman lying dead." _Can he be_ _real?_

"Perfectly sound analysis, but I _was_ hoping you’d go deeper." Having someone on his side, to exchange idea with, was new for him and he was quite enjoying it. _Who knows?_

With a deep sigh, John looks at the woman carefully. He puts his head close to sniff the air around her mouth, lifts her right hand to look with care at her skin. "Yeah ... Asphyxiation, probably. Passed out, choked on her own vomit. Can’t smell any alcohol on her. It could have been a seizure; possibly drugs."

"You know what it was. You’ve read the papers and it was all around the news..."

"What? The 'serial suicides'? She's one of the suicides? The fourth ...?" _Oh My God, this is a serious investigation. What are we doing here!_

"Sherlock – two minutes, I said. I need anything you’ve got." Lestrade was looking nervously at the door.

With a smirk, Sherlock relates all the things he had discovered. "Victim is in her late thirties. Professional person, going by her clothes; I’m guessing something in the media, going by the frankly alarming shade of pink. Travelled from Cardiff today... intending to stay in London for one night. It’s obvious from the size of her suitcase."

"Suitcase?" Lestrade was glaring at Sherlock. _What is he on about, a suitcase, bloody hell?_

 _"_ Suitcase, yes. She’s been married at least ten years, but not happily. She’s had a string of lovers but none of them knew she was married."

"Oh, for God’s sake," Lestrade interrupts, "if you’re just making this up ..."

Sherlock, pointing at her wedding ring, explains with exasperation how he arrived to his many conclusions. With admiration in his voice, John whispers a "That’s brilliant!" Sherlock looks at him quickly with an unreadable expression on his face. The doctor, not knowing if it was wrong for him to express his opinion at this point, mumbles a quick "Sorry."

"And... Cardiff?"

"It’s obvious, isn’t it?... Dear God, what is it like in your funny little brains? It must be so boring." _I will have to work with John on that!_

John, looking at the man with amazement as he went on how he was able to know where the woman was coming from by using the weather, cannot stop from uttering a "That’s fantastic!"

Once again, Sherlock turns to him. This time he asks "Do you know you do that out loud?"

"Sorry. I’ll shut up." _His cheek were becoming red, he knows it! This is so_ _embarrassing, I'm acting like a bloody teenager!_

With a slight smile, he answers,"No, it’s ... fine. More than fine." In fact, Sherlock was presently thinking how pretty John was with his pink cheeks. No, not pretty, beautiful!

Lestrade, who didn't have time for foreplay of any kind, interrupts. "Why do you keep saying suitcase?"

Looking around the room, a distracted Sherlock asks,  "Yes, where is it? She must have had a phone or an organizer. Find out who Rachel is!"

"She was writing ‘Rachel’?"

With all the sarcasm he was able to put in his tone, Sherlock replies, "No, Lestrade, she was leaving an angry note in German! Of _course_ she was writing Rachel; no other word makes sense. Question is: why did she wait until she was dying to write it? Now, where the case? What have you done with it?"

The DI raises his shoulders. "There wasn’t a case. There was never any suitcase."

Sherlock heads for the door, calling out loudly to everyone as he runs down the stairs. "Suitcase! Did anyone find a suitcase? Was there a suitcase in this house?"

Lestrade, now on the landing, tries to calm the man. "Sherlock, there was no case!"

Still walking down the stairs, Sherlock pauses and looks up "But they take the poison themselves; they chew, swallow the pills themselves. There are clear signs. Even you lot couldn’t miss them!  It’s murder, all of them. I don’t know how, but they’re not suicides, they’re killings – _serial_ killings." He nearly jumped for joy, _a bit not good_ John thinks to himself, "We’ve got ourselves a serial killer. I _love_ those. There’s always something to look forward to."

"Why are you saying that?" A dubious Lestrade asks.

"Her case! Come on, where is her case? Did she eat it? Someone else was here, and they took her case. " He calms himself; he was now thinking out loud instead of speaking to the people around him. "...So the killer must have driven her here; forgot the case was in the car." He paused. "Oh...." His face lights up with glee. "OH!"

John, curious and worried at the same time, called "Sherlock?" while Lestrade questions the man to find out what it was all about.

"Serial killers are always hard. You have to wait for them to make a mistake! And we’re _done_ waiting! Look at her! She's the mistake!"

He ran outside like a mad man when he stops suddenly just before passing under the yellow tape and waits for the doctor.  At Lestrade, Donovan and Anderson's amazement, he raises the tape at John's height and he calls happily. "Come on John! THE GAME IS ON!"

**Author's Note:**

> Transcript from Study in Pink by the wonderful Ariane de Vere
> 
> http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/43794.html


End file.
